This striking modern home located near Aarhus in Denmark packs an amazing array of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/architecture/">green building strategies</a> into a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/08/04/lucky-drops-is-a-lantern-like-japanese-micro-home/">small footprint</a>, allowing it to actually produce more power than it consumes. Designed and built to be super energy-efficient, smart, eco-friendly, and powered by the sun, the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/07/29/zero-energy-housing-wedge-in-denmark-covered-in-solar-panels/" target="_blank">zero-plus</a> <a href="http://www.activehouse.info/cases/home-life" target="_blank">Home For Life</a> is an experiment in creating the sustainable house of the future. A family has been living in the home now for 14 months and reporting on their activities and the home's performance in order to improve the design for future iterations.

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Home for Life

The Home for Life is one of eight experimental buildings created by VKR Holdings to develop the sustainable home of the future.

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Home for Life

The home is designed using the Active House principle, which has a strong focus on energy-efficient design, daylighting and renewable energy generation.

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Home for Life

Every room has at least two walls with windows on it, so the home makes great use of natural daylighting.

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Home for Life

Intelligent controls manage the home's energy usage. Automatic systems turn off lights when rooms is not in use and open windows for natural ventilation.

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Home for Life

During the cool seasons, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is used so the cold air can be heated without the use of additional energy.

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Home for Life

The home's windows cover 40 percent of the total floor area, which is twice the area of a traditional house.

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Home for Life

An Active House takes similar principles of Passive House design, but incorporates more daylighting and utilizes "smart home" devices to optimize the use of energy.

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Home for Life

It is one thing to design and build a smart and energy-efficient home, but little research has been done yet to see how livable they are. Data collected from this experiment is very important to future designs.

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Home for Life

The family reports on how comfortable they are with the automatic controls -- when the climate was just right for them, and when the controls made it too hot or too cold.

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Home for Life

The south-facing slate roof includes the photovoltaic system, solar hot water system and skylights.

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Home for Life

The home's energy systems are all optimized and work together to minimize energy use.

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Home for Life

The roof is key to the design -- it incorporates renewable energy generation, skylights for natural lighting, and operable windows for cooling.

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Home for Life

A schematic of the House of Life.

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Home for Life

This striking modern home located near Aarhus in Denmark packs an amazing array of green building strategies into a small footprint, allowing it to actually produce more power than it consumes. Designed and built to be super energy-efficient, smart, eco-friendly, and powered by the sun, the zero-plusHome For Life is an experiment in creating the sustainable house of the future. A family has been living in the home now for 14 months and reporting on their activities and the home's performance in order to improve the design for future iterations.